Chris Watts tried killing his two young daughters before murdering wife, but they survived and saw him wrapping their dead mother in a blanket
Chris Watts has revealed that he tried to kill his two young daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, before killing his 15-weeks-pregnant wife Shanann at their Frederick, Colorado, home on August 13, 2018, but found out, much to his surprise, that they survived.
Watts detailed the gruesome triple-murder in revealing letters to author Cherlyn Cadle that will be published as part of her explosive new book 'Letters from Christopher: The Tragic Confessions of the Watts Family Murders.'
In excerpts obtained by the Daily Mail, Watts confirmed that the murders were not committed in a spontaneous burst of rage as he had previously claimed and that they had been planned as a part of his bid to get together with his mistress Nichole Kessinger.
"August 12th when I finished putting the girls to bed, I walked away and said, 'That's the last time I'm going to be tucking my babies in.' I knew what was going to happen the day before and I did nothing to stop it!"
He also revealed that he had tried to kill Bella and Celeste before strangling wife Shanann to death, only to realize that they had somehow survived the attempt.
"August 13th, morning of, I went to the girls' room first, before Shanann and I had our argument," he wrote in one of the letters. "I went to Bella's room, then Cece's room and used a pillow from their bed (to kill them). That's why the cause of death was smothering. After I left Cece's room, then I climbed back in bed with Shanann and our argument ensued."
He said the two young girls came walking into his bedroom after he killed Shanann and was wrapping her body in a bedsheet, and kept asking him what was wrong with her.
"After Shanann had passed, Bella and Cece woke back up. I'm not sure how they woke back up, but they did. Bella's eyes were bruised and both girls looked like they had been through trauma. That made the act that much worse knowing I went to their rooms first and knowing I still took their lives at the location of the batteries."
As the night progressed, Watts dragged Shannan's body into his truck, with her feet and face wrapped in garbage bags, and drove her and Bella and Celeste to a remote oil field owned by his then-employer, Anadarko.
There, he smothered the two young girls with a blanket and dumped their bodies inside separate oil tankers. Afterward, he turned to bury his wife in a shallow grave, writing, "When I dug the hole, it seemed a lot deeper than it was. As I pulled on the sheet she rolled out and into the hole. I think she had given birth."
Watts pleaded guilty to all the murders on November 6 last year as part of a plea deal that saw the death penalty taken off the table. He was subsequently sentenced to five life sentences -- three consecutive and two concurrent -- without the possibility of parole.
He also received an additional 48 years for the unlawful termination of his wife's pregnancy and 36 years for three charges of tampering with a deceased body.